Plant Science & Botany

Ethnobotany of India: 5 volume series

Ethnobotany of India, Volume 2
Western Ghats and West Coast of Peninsular India

Editors: T. Pullaiah, PhD
K. V. Krishnamurthy, PhD
Bir Bahadur, PhD

Ethnobotany of India, Volume 2

Published. Now Available
Pub Date: December 2016
Hardback Price: see ordering info
Hard ISBN: 9781771884044
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-77463-120-1
E-Book ISBN: 9781315366142
Pages: 368pp+index
Binding Type: hardbound / ebook / paperback
Series: Ethnobotany of India: 5 volume series
Notes: 31 color and 11 B/W illustrations


Reviews
“This volume will serve as a pragmatic and authoritative reference for conservationists and pharmacologists working in India. . . . Readers will also find it credible as a de facto gap and trend analysis for ethnobotanical studies in the Western Ghats. . . . Over the past two decades, there has been an exponential increase in ethnobotanical studies throughout South Asia. Often published in local journals or by independent presses, however, their findings rarely receive the attention needed to drive both innovation and policy. The five-volume Ethnobotany of India series addresses this by extensively reviewing plant resources from the subcontinent. Volume 2 focuses on ethnobotanical knowledge from the Western Ghats and West Coast of Peninsular India, providing not only historical context but also ethnographic insight into the region. The Western Ghats are one of Earth’s most breathtaking biocultural hotspots. Extending south from the humid metropolis of Mumbai through the western tip of Peninsular India, their rolling hills house diverse communities that have (re)shaped each other through time. Volume 2 presents these dynamics in 13 curated chapters structured around standard ethnobotanical tables. However, it is unique in that it supplements them with additional information on global processes, including historical trade in the Arabian Sea. Other chapters shed light on the value of place when assessing plant use and management. Of note, a section on sacred forests highlights mores that may promote community-based conservation of medicinal plants. . . . ”
—Economic Botany,
reviewed by Alexander R. O’Neill, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

“So informative . . . A worthwhile addition to the scant literature on the ethnobotany of India. The editors deserve our thanks and congratulations. Developing a concept such as the one enshrined in this set, for a humongous landscape that had experienced a vibrant cultural evolution over thousands of years and pulling relevant chapters together written by a range of people, can never be easy. In that sense, the outcome is excellent. The text is generally easy to read. . . . The stunning volume of data presented as tables would go a long way in stimulating further investigations and launching suitable conservation efforts. . . . The book set should help, facilitate and motivate scores of Indian botanists, economic botanists, natural products chemists, pharmacologists, anthropologists, historians and others who would seek clarity in this context. A valuable addition to Indian biological and chemical literature.”
—Current Science, April 2019, review by Anantanarayanan Raman, Charles Sturt University & Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Australia



Now Available in Paperback


Ethnobotany of India: Volume 2: Western Ghats and West Coast of Peninsular India is the second of a five-volume set. This series of volumes on the ethnobotany of different regions of India brings together important available ethnobotanical knowledge in one place. India is one of the most important regions of the old world and has some of the very ancient and culturally rich and diverse knowledge systems. The expert authors have been selected to summarize information on the various aspects of ethnobotany of India, such as ethnoecology, traditional agriculture, cognitive ethnobotany, material sources, traditional pharmacognosy, ethnoconservation strategies, bioprospection of ethnodirected knowledge, and documentation and protection of ethnobotanical knowledge.

Volume 1 focuses on Eastern Ghats and the adjacent Deccan region of Peninsular India. Ethnobotany of India: Volume 2: Western Ghats and West Coast of Peninsular India focuses on a region of very great sociocultural history of not only India but also of the entire Indian Ocean region.

Topics in this volume include:
  • ethnic diversity and the influence of trade, religion, and policy on ethnic diversity and ethnobotany of the Western Peninsular India
  • European contributions to the ethnobotany during 16th to 18th centuries
  • human affinities with plants in the worldviews of indigenous communities
  • ethnobotanicals of Western Ghats
  • ethnoveterinary medicinal plants of Western Ghats
  • medicinal flora and related traditional knowledge
  • plant-based ethnic knowledge of food and nutrition
  • useful plants of Western Ghats
  • an ethnobased biodiversity conservation strategy
This volume of valuable information on various aspects of the ethnobotany of India may help lead to the discovery of new drugs, nutraceuticals, and other useful products for the benefit of mankind. The book also provides information that will valuable for the conservation and sustainable utilization of the plant resources.

CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
K. V. Krishnamurthy, Bir Bahadur, and T. Pullaiah
2. Ethnic Diversity
K. V. Krishnamurthy, Bir Bahadur, and S. John Adams
3. The Influence of Trade, Religion, and Policy on Ethnic Diversity and Ethnobotany of the Western Peninsular India
K. V. Krishnamurthy
4. European Contributions to the Ethnobotany of Western Peninsular India during the 16th to 18th Centuries
K. V. Krishnamurthy and T. Pullaiah
5. Listening to a Fairy Tale on a Moonlit Night….: Some Reflections on the Human Affinities with Plants in the Worldviews of Indigenous Communities along the Western Ghats of Karnataka
B. S. Somashekhar
6. Ethnobotanicals of Western Ghats
S. Noorunnisa Begum, K. Ravikumar, and D. K. Ved
7. Contemporary Relevance of Ethno-Veterinary Practices and a Review of Ethnoveterinary Medicinal Plants of Western Ghats
M. N. B. Nair and N. Punniamurthy
8. Medicinal Flora and Related Traditional Knowledge of Western Ghats: A Potential Source for Community Based Malaria Management through Endogenous Approach
B. N. Prakash, P. M. Unnikrishnan, and G. Hariramamurthi
9. Plant-Based Ethnic Knowledge of Food and Nutrition in the Western Ghats
Kandikere R. Sridhar and Namera C. Karun
10. Useful Plants of Western Ghats
S. Karuppusamy and T. Pullaiah
11. Ethnobotany of Mangroves with Particular Reference to West Coast of Peninsular India
T. Pullaiah, Bir Bahadur, and K. V. Krishnamurthy
12. Sacred Groves of Western Ghats: An Ethnobased Biodiversity Conservation Strategy
K. V. Krishnamurthy and S. John Adams
13. Ethnobryology of India
Afroz Alam
Index


About the Authors / Editors:
Editors: T. Pullaiah, PhD
Former Professor, Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Andhra Pradesh, India

T. Pullaiah, PhD, is a former Professor at the Department of Botany at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Andhra Pradesh, India, where he has taught for more than 35 years. He has held several positions at the university, including Dean, Faculty of Biosciences, Head of the Department of Botany, Head of the Department of Biotechnology, and Member, Academic Senate. He was President of the Indian Botanical Society (2014), President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (2013), and Fellow of the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. He was awarded the Panchanan Maheswari Gold Medal, the Dr. G. Panigrahi Memorial Lecture Award of the Indian Botanical Society, the Prof. Y. D. Tyagi Gold Medal of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy, and a Best Teacher Award from Government of Andhra Pradesh. Under his guidance 53 students obtained their doctoral degrees. He has authored 45 books, edited 15 books, and published over 300 research papers, including reviews and book chapters. His books include Flora of Eastern Ghats (4 volumes), Flora of Andhra Pradesh (5 volumes), Flora of Telangana (3 volumes), Encyclopedia of World Medicinal Plants (5 volumes), and Encyclopedia of Herbal Antioxidants (3 volumes). He was also a member of Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Professor Pullaiah received his PhD from Andhra University, India, attended Moscow State University, Russia, and worked as postdoctoral Fellow during 1976-78.

K. V. Krishnamurthy, PhD
Former Professor, Department of Plant Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, India; Consultant, R & D, Sami Labs Ltd, Bangalore, India

K. V. Krishnamurthy, PhD, is a former Professor and Head of Department, Plant Sciences at Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirappalli, India, and is at present an adjunct faculty at the Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bangalore. He obtained his PhD degree from Madras University, India, and has taught many undergraduate, postgraduate, MPhil, and PhD students. He has over 48 years of teaching and research experience, and his major research areas include plant morphology and morphogenesis, biodiversity, floristic and reproductive ecology, and cytochemistry. He has published more than 170 research papers and 21 books, operated 16 major research projects funded by various agencies, and guided 32 PhD and more than 50 MPhil scholars. His important books include Methods in Cell Wall Cytochemistry (CRC Press, USA), Textbook of Biodiversity (Science Publishers, USA), and From Flower to Fruit (Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi). One of his important research projects pertains to a detailed study of Shervaroys, which form a major hill region in the southern Eastern Ghats, and seven of his PhD scholars have done research work on various aspects of Eastern Ghats. He has won several awards and honors that include the Hira Lal Chakravarthy Award (1984) from the Indian Science Congress; Fulbright Visiting Professorship at the University of Colorado, USA (1993); Best Environmental Scientist Award of Tamil Nadu state (1998); the V. V. Sivarajan Award of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (1998); and the Prof. V. Puri Award from the Indian Botanical Society (2006). He is a fellow of the Linnaean Society, London; National Academy of Sciences, India; and Indian Association of Angiosperm Taxonomy.

Bir Bahadur, PhD
Former Professor, Department of Botany, Kakatiya University, Warangal, Telangana, India

Bir Bahadur, PhD, Bir Bahadur, PhD, was Chairman and Head of the Department, and Dean of the Faculty of Science at Kakatiya University in Warangal, India, and has also taught at Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. During his long academic career, he was honored with the Best Teacher Award by Andhra Pradesh State Government for mentoring thousands of graduates and postgraduate students, including 30 PhDs, most of whom went onto occupy high positions at various universities and research organizations in India and abroad. Dr. Bahadur has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Vishwambhar Puri Medal from the Indian Botanical Society for his research contributions in various aspects of plant Sciences. He has published over 200 research papers and reviews and has authored or edited dozen books, including Plant Biology and Biotechnology and Jatropha, Challenges for New Energy Crop, both published in two volumes each by Springer Publishers. Dr. Bahadur is listed as an Eminent Botanist of India, the Bharath Jyoti Award, New Delhi, for his sustained academic and research career at New Delhi and elsewhere. Long active in his field, he has a member of over dozen professional bodies in India and abroad, including Fellow of the Linnean Society (London); Chartered Biologist Fellow of the Institute of Biology (London); Member of the New York Academy of Sciences; and a Royal Society Bursar. He was also honored with an Honorary Fellowship of Birmingham University (UK). Presently he is an Independent Director of Sri Biotech Laboratories India LTD, Hyderabad, India.




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